Physicists discover strong "family" of superconducting graphene structures
When it comes to graphene, it seems that superconductivity runs in the family. Graphene is a single atom-thin material that can be peeled off from the same graphite found in pencil tips. The ultra-thin material is made entirely of carbon atoms arranged in a simple hexagonal pattern, similar to chicken wire. Since its isolation in 2004, graphene has been found to manifest many remarkable properties in its single layer form. In 2018, MIT researchers discovered that if two layers of graphene are stacked at very specific “magic” angles, the bent bilayer structure can exhibit strong superconductivity, a much sought-after material state in which electric current can flow without loss of energy. Recently, the same group discovered a similar superconductive state that exists in bent trilayer graphene – a structure made of three layers of graphene stacked at new, precise magic angles. Now the team reports that — you guessed it — four and five layers of graphene can be twisted and stacked at